The SKA Project

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project is an international effort to build the world’s largest radio telescope, with approximately a square kilometre (one million square metres) of collecting area. This is equivalent to 140 football pitches.

The SKA will not be a single telescope, but use the technique of interferometry to eventually combine vast numbers of three different types of radio telescopes in four unique configurations. This represents a huge leap forward in both engineering delivery and research & development, and will deliver a correspondingly transformational increase in science capability when operational in the mid 2020s.

The SKA telescope will be co-located in radio quiet zones in Africa and Australia. South Africa, hosting the core of the high and mid frequency instruments, along with several African partner countries, will work alongside Australia, who will host the low frequency dipole antennas and the dish-survey instrument. With a range of other large ground- based and space telescopes covering huge swaths of the electromagnetic spectrum already or becoming operational over the coming decades, the SKA will perfectly augment, compliment and lead the way in scientific discovery.

The SKA Organisation, with its headquarters at Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Manchester, UK, manages and formalises relationships between the international partners and consortia and centralises the leadership of the project. Members of the SKA Organisation are Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India (associate member), Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.